Mugged
by RyanTyler2294
Summary: He had this way of working a spot into people hearts with a soft smile and gentle understanding. So when he came in one day with a black eye it raised a lot of questions


**Okay it is way past my bedtime, but I wanted to post this before I forget. Any grammar or spelling mistakes are my bad. **

Danny didn't like the new guy at first. Sure all the women in the office gushed about how handsome he was. But what really got him was the fact that he was the Deputy Director kid and probably only got where he was today because of that fact. And worse he had rookie enthusiasm oozing off of him. His eyes shinned bright whenever he managed to solve a problem in a case.

He was a nice enough guy, all in all. He didn't mind having to go on the coffee runs and even when Danny would insult him he seemed to take in stride, and was soon well liked among the other agents.

The guy's name was Martin Fitzgerald he had blue eyes and brown hair and somehow managed to wear some of the worst suits despite the fact that he came from money. He had this way of working a spot into people hearts with a soft smile and gentile understanding.

So when he came in one day with a black eye it raised a lot of questions. Martin shrugged it off saying someone tried to mug him. It was believable when you thought about the side of the city that he lived on. But when a few days later he came in with a sprain wrist the office went into a tizzy.

Anyone in law enforcement knew the signs of domestic abuse. And by the time when his arm was broken everyone was concerned, even Danny. "I doubt he'd let a girl do this to him." He said in the break room when most of the other agents were on break.

"What, you think a woman can't do any damage," Samantha snapped, "Besides, Martin doesn't seem like the type to fight back if it was a woman."

"You know," Vivian started in her gentile voice, "We keep ruling out that it's another male. Martin could have a boyfriend."

"No, we were hanging out last weekend and trust me he's a total ladies' man," Danny bragged.

"If he was flirting then there probably isn't a significant other at all," Sam noted, "Maybe he really is just getting mugged."

"On a regular basis like this? I grew up in some of the toughest parts of Florida and even I didn't get mugged as regularly as he's claiming."

"You would probably get a better explanation if you asked him what's going on," Vivian said using logic.

"I tried talking to him but he just changed the subject." Danny explained.

"What are you guys talking about?" Martin asked as he entered to room and made his way to the vending machine. Looking back at it, it probably wasn't the smartest idea to have a meeting in the one room Martin was most drawn to. Martin loved food, and from the stress of whatever he was going through was causing him to eat more.

"Nothing," they all said simultaneously causing Martin to raise an eyebrow.

~.~.~.~.~

Danny was uneasy as he went to leave for the day. Normally Martin would leave when he left so they could hang out but today he was still sitting at his desk as if he was thinking of something that had him worried.

"Martin, are you ready to go," his voiced pulled Martin out of whatever trance he was in.

"I'm sorry what?"

"I asked if you were ready to go."

"I'm going to stick around a little longer and finish a few more files."

"Martin, your hand is broken, how are you going to carry your stuff. Besides Jack isn't going to be mad at you for slacking a bit with the month you been having." The other man was silent as if weighing out his options. "I'll drive you," he added.

"Fine," Martin finally caved, pulling on his jacket.

Danny never realized that he and Martin only lived a few blocks away from each other, "You know because you keep getting mugged so often would it be better if I were to just pick you up in the morning?"

"You would do that?" he sounded excited and relived at the same time.

"Of course, if it's going to keep you from getting hurt. With you in the office all the time I'm stuck having to chase down people with only Samantha or Jack, and neither of them are that fast," he joked trying to keep the mood light.

Martin smiled back thanking him one last time before exiting the car and heading up to his apartment. Danny watched him go making sure he actually made it to upstairs.

~.~.~.~.~

"So you been driving him to and from work," Samantha asked with an amused expression on her face.

"Yeah, it's no big deal," Danny said over his coffee, "It keeps him from getting the shit beaten up."

"You guys have been pretty close lately."

"It's not like that."

"Danny remember when we first joined and you said something about not caring about gender."

"What of it?"

"Well, Martin isn't a bad guy, and he's not bad looking either…"

"Get to the point."

"You guys would look cute together."

Danny was glad Samantha couldn't see his blush. He'd long since realized that he had a thing for Martin. He was one of the few people he felt comfortable enough to let his walls down whenever he was around. Thought the more his feeling grew the more awkward it became to be around him. What with the constant urge to take Martin into his arms and confess to him and prove that he meant what he said with a kiss.

"Anyway," Samantha voice pulled him from his thought, "I think you should go for it."

Later on in the week Danny's car broke down leaving both him and Martin to have to take the public transportation system in order to get to work. Not long after the injuries started up again, and they continued to get worse until one day Martin just didn't show up for work.

"I'm going to go to his place to see if he's okay," Danny said after an hour of Martin not showing up. When he arrived Martin wasn't anywhere to be seen. Worried about what could have happened to him.

The rest of the team arrived not long after the care and quickly got to work processing the scene. Nothing was found out of place, though the investigation did strike the attention of a few neighbors.

The elderly woman across the hall was the first to grab their attention asking if something had happened to Martin. They explained that he hadn't shown up for work and were just checking to see if fowl play was involved.

"So this isn't about his injuries?" She asked concerned.

"No, but anything you know can be helpful," Danny pulled out a pad ready to write what she had to say down.

"I don't know anything about them either. I was hoping someone was finally doing something about it. The boy keeps saying that he's been getting mugged. He hasn't even lived here for a year yet."

"Does he talk to you a lot?"

"Oh yes, the landlord never fixes anything so whenever there's a problem he helps me out. I make him cookies for payment even though he insists that I don't. But there are times when he comes over on his day off just to keep me company."

"Do you know anyone who would want to hurt him?"

"Little Marty? No he was well liked by everyone."

"What about his romantic life, has he mentioned a girlfriend or anything?"

The old lady just snickered, "No he hasn't mentioned a girlfriend. But there was this one woman, Caroline. She's his ex-fiancé. He said that she moved here into town not too long ago. It's my understanding that he called off the wedding but she'll tell you that she did for some reason or another."

"Was she bitter about the break up?"

"A little, it was probably the circumstances of it."

"Which were?"

"You should ask her."

Danny sighed, "Does she have a last name?"

~.~.~.~.~

"Are you sure this is the place?" Samantha asked looking at the huge mansion like house.

"This has to be it. Could you imagine Victor letting Martin propose to someone who wasn't well to do?" Danny asked as they climb out of the car and walked to the front door.

"I know but, this place is huge."

They rang the doorbell surprisingly being greeted by a women around her late twenties early thirties. She was pretty, breath taken even. She had long brown hair and green eyes, the smallest amount of freckles cluttered on her cheeks.

"Can I help ya'll?" she asked in a heavy southern accent.

"Yes, do you know where we can find a Miss Caroline Bell?" Samantha asked.

"That would be me."

"Ms. Bell I'm Danny Taylor and this is my partner Samantha Spade. We're from the FBI's Missing Persons Unit," Danny said as they both flashed their badges, "We're here because Martin Fitzgerald has gone missing and wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Come in," she waved for them to follow inside before closing the door, "Are you sure he's missing."

"Yes, he never showed up for work and his truck is still in the driveway of his apartment, but he's not home."

"Poor Marty," she sighed, "He's been thought enough in his life already."

"That's what we're here about," Samantha said, "It's our understanding that you guys were once engaged."

"Yes, that's right."

"It's also our understanding that he called it off, even though you told everyone you did, and that you were bitter about it."

Caroline actually laughed, "No, I wasn't bitter about it. Poor Martin was gay, and had been struggling with his sexuality for a while. I didn't start to expect it until after we were engaged. I was happy he called it off before I had to. We still stay in contact, he's a sweet guy, he just started off life pretty rough."

"What makes you say that?" Danny asked.

"When he was younger he used to get beat up pretty bag because the kids in his school _suspected _that he was gay, and it only got worse in high school. He also came out to his dad this past summer. That's how he ended up in the New York office instead of in Washington. His dad wanted him as far away from him as possible."

"Was Victor angry about this?" Samantha was scared of the answer.

"He was livid. He even hit him a few times."

"Around what time was that?"

"Before he got moved here." She said ruling Victor out.

"One last question," Danny sighed, "Do you know if he was seeing anyone, romantically."

"No, he mentioned this one guy who works in the same building as him, but it was only once and he never gave me a name. Sorry."

"It's alright," Samantha reassured her, "Thank you for your time."

~.~.~.~.~

"I can't believe that jerk hit him." Danny grumbled as they drove, his hand white knuckled on the steering wheel.

"I know, but you need to calm down in order to think straight. I don't think Victor is a part of this."

"I know Sam," he snapped as they pulled into the parking lot of the FBI building. "But we have no leads and Martin could be anywhere right now."

"Well, let's hope that Jack and Vivian found something when they talked to the family."

It wasn't too surprising to hear that Martin's family had cut off contact with him the moment he moved to New York. It seemed like his family had no sort of loyalty to him, and instead favored still being in Victor's will.

"You know," Vivian said, "You mentioned that he used to get bullied a lot and even his dad hit him. Do you think this has anything to do with his sexual orientation? Think about the area he lives in."

"Anything is possible at this point." Jack said, leaving them to go into his office when his phone started to ring.

"You would think that he would say something to us if he was being harassed," Samantha mused, "After all of the cases we've had he should know that we wouldn't care about something as small as his gender preference."

"I'm going to see if the CSI unit finished with those finger prints," Danny declared. He couldn't stay in the room any longer and at least this way maybe they would be able to find some sort of leave

Before he could make it to the door Jack came out of the office, "I just got a call from the hospital. Martin was admitted last night. They just got around to calling me now."

"Is he okay?" Danny asked with obvious worry in his voice.

"They stabilized him last night but he's still in recovery."

"I-I'm going to go see if he's okay anyways."

Jack agreed with a knowing look on his face, "Tell us how he's doing when you make it back."

"Alright," he took off at a brisk pace. When he arrived the nurse gave him a sad look saying that he would want to talk to the doctor before seeing him.

The doctor gave him the same sad smile that all of the nurses gave him. The doctor explained that he was in bad shape, "I just want to go over with you what happened so you're not shocked by what you see. His left arm is broken along with his right thigh. He has three bruised rib and once broken one that punctured his left lung. We managed to patch it up luckily there was no need for a respirator. His face is bruised up pretty badly though most of the swelling went down over night, again he was lucky, he appears to not have a concussion. But he is hooked up to multiple IV's and a blood transfusion."

"Is he awake?"

"Yes, and very alert."

"Is it alright if I go talk to him?"

"We really only want family talking to him right now."

Danny sighed knowing Martin's family probably wouldn't show. He flashed his badge, "I'm from the Missing Person's Unit with the FBI. I'm working his case." He left his badge out long enough for the doctor to pale when he saw it was legit.

"I'm sorry I didn't realize…"

"It's alright, but if you could direct me to Mr. Fitzgerald's room, that would be very helpful."

"Of course."

The doctor was true to his words about Martin's condition. He was in a pretty sad state. But he did smile when he saw Danny, or more so tried to smile. The swelling didn't allow much movement around his mouth.

"Hey," Danny kept his voice low, with the amount of head trauma that was visible Martin was bound to have a headache.

"Hey," Martin's voice was equally as low.

"Are you feeling alright?" Danny wanted to kick himself. Of course he wasn't alright.

"I've been better," Martin admitted. He was normally one to try and hide his pain.

"The whole team went crazy looking for you when you didn't show up at work this morning. The doctor just got around to calling us."

"Don't tell me you started a full fledge investigation," Martin joked lightly.

"We did," Danny sighed though he was smiling, "Processed your apartment talked to your neighbors and your family. We have finger prints in the lab and we're still waiting for your land lord to give us the surveillance tapes from around your apartment."

Martin paled at that last part, letting Danny know that whatever happened to him was on those tapes, "Are you feeling up to giving a statement?"

"No, I really don't remember much."

Danny found that odd because the doctor said he didn't have a concussion. Martin was lying, but he didn't push. "The moment your memory comes back don't forget to make sure you get your statement on paper."

"I know how these things work Danny," Martin teased lightly, "How has the investigation been going?"

Danny could tell Martin was fishing for something but he didn't know what. So he started to explain how they talked to some of his neighbors and how the one across from him was particularly helpful with giving them the lead to Caroline and how the engagement broke off.

"Everyone knows now," Even with the swelling Martin's face was something akin to horror.

"Yes, we had to tell Jack what we found."

Martin ran his good hand over his face. He was shaking but not crying.

"Martin, no one thinks less of you for it. But we wanted to make sure we covered all leads. Does what happen to you have to do with your orientation? Is that why you didn't come to us for help?" Danny asked gently.

Martin kept turned to look out the window instead of at Danny, "Can we talk about this later?"

"Sure, sure, I have to head back to the office anyways and tell the others that you're okay. I'll be back around later today, and probably the rest of the team as well."

~.~.~.~.~

"He got really upset when he found out that we knew," Danny told them when he got back, "Other than that and his injuries he seems to be doing fine."

"If he freaked out so badly, we could be looking at a hate crime," Vivian said, "He might just be so used to people hating him for who he is his first instinct is to hide it. And if whoever did this to him was doing it because of his orientation he work at hiding it even harder."

Samantha sighed, "I feel bad for him. His whole life he's been struggling with this, and had no one supporting him." Right now she was looking through the tapes that corresponded to the dates he came in with an injury a long with the security tapes from last night.

"We know now and we can help him through it," Danny said. "I think I got something," it was Martin walking home in what looked like his street clothes. A guy was standing in front of the apartment door not letting him in. He shoved Martin and two or three guys came around the corner. And then they just started beating him dragging him into a back ally. About thirty minutes later they came out one by one saying something or the other to each other smiling the whole time.

"Do you think you can get some stills of their faces?"

"Yeah, they practically smile at the camera. Tell Jack what we found."

"I'm on it," she left and came back with Jack a few minutes later, by then Danny had already printed off pictures of the people.

"Good job, I'll run these through the system and see if we can find out who they are. Meanwhile I want you to go back to Martin's apartment and show the pictures to his neighbors to see if anyone knows who they are."

~.~.~.~.~

The search seemed to be fruitless. No one knew who the men were.  
"Are you sure," he sighed. The last person they asked was Martin's elderly neighbor across the hall.

"I'm sorry but I don't think I've ever seen them around here."

"Thanks anyway," Samantha said.

"How is he by the way? Did you find him?"

"Yeah, he's at the hospital," Danny explained. "He's pretty beat up but he'll live."

She sighed in relief expressing her happiness to them before offering them some cookies for the office.

"This sucks," Samantha said once they were back in the car. "How did no one not see or hear anything? He had to be screaming, no matter how late it is someone had to hear or look out their window."

"It was dark, even if they looked, they probably wouldn't have seen anything."

"I'm going to call Jack and see if we can show the pictures to Martin and see if we can get a positive ID from him."

~.~.~.~.~

"Yeah, that's them," Martin said looking at the pictures.

"Have you seen them before?" Samantha asked.

"The first time I saw them I was coming out of this gay bar that I hang out at, sometimes, called Rainbows. It's a pretty calm place all and all. Anyways I was walking home and they started saying stuff to me and I ignored it."

"Said things like what."

Martin sighed, "They called me a fag, a cock sucker, told me I was going to rot in hell," his voice sounded distant. "Anyways, they were the ones who've been giving me the hard time. They followed me home once. I thought I shook them off, but I guess they hung back and waited for the time to strike. After a while they would just wait around my building until I got home."

"Are you going to press charges," Samantha asked, "Because even if you don't the state will. This is considered a hate crime and…"

"I know," Martin snapped, "The last thing I need is for this to go public. The moment we make the arrest the press is going to have a field day with it."

"We have your back the whole time," Danny reassured.

"I know," Martin sighed, "I'm getting tired now."

The other two took the hint and left back to the office. Luckily Jack and Vivian had already made the arrest and gotten a confession from one of the culprits for a lesser sentence if he testified against the others in court.

"He's really upset about all this," Samantha said, "Once the case starts…"

"I know," Jack sighed, "But we can't stop it from happening."

~.~.~.~.~

Martin was allowed home a few days later, though he did have to stay on crutches. Danny accompanied him home to make sure he was okay and got settled. Martin's neighbor came by once in a while saying how glad they were that he was alright.

The elderly neighbor, who through discussion Danny found out her name, was Ms. Humphrey, came and smirked when she saw Danny telling him to make sure he took good care of him.

"Don't worry I will," Danny reassured him, "He'll be as healthy as a horse when I'm done with him."

"Not just that. I know what your intentions are and Martin is a very gentle soul. He gets high hopes and then is let down easily in every relationship. If you do something don't think I won't hesitate to hurt you."

"I-I don't…" he sputtered.

"I know when someone is making eyes, don't think I don't see." Then she walked away, leaving a plate of cookies.

"She's something else," Danny said sitting down next to Martin.

"Yeah," Martin agreed. He hadn't heard the conversation but he knew she could talk your ears off if you let her. "She's like a second mom to me though," he blushed looking at Danny to deciding whether or not to continue, "She was the first person I ever willingly told I was gay before I came out to my parents."

"Oh," was all Danny could bring himself to say.

"She kept trying to give me her niece's number and when I told her she just blinked and tried to give me her nephew's number instead. She never treated me differently she just, if anything she encouraged me. She always said that I kept letting good opportunities pass me by and that I needed more confident in order to be with the people I want."

"Speaking of that," Danny cleared his throat, "Caroline mentioned that there was someone in the office that you have a thing for?" The blush on Martin's face was priceless.

"T-that was when I was still working in Seattle," he stammered out.

"Oh," Danny smirked, "She said that it was when you were in New York. And you only worked in one office since you've been here and unless you're crushing on Jack…" he let Martin finish the thought himself. Though the smile fell from his lips when he was how terrified Martin was looking.

His eyes were wide and watering as if he was about to cry, and he was shaking, badly. His breath was coming out in little spirits as he squirmed soon realizing that because of his injured leg he couldn't go anywhere.

"I'm not mad at you Martin," Danny said gently resting a hand on the others shoulder to calm him, "I like you too." He gave Martin a reassuring shoulder squeeze, but he still looked as if he didn't believe him. "I mean it."

He leaned forwards and kissed him. At first Martin didn't respond but after a while he kissed back whimpering softly when he felt Danny pull him closer one hand in his hair the other arm around his waist. It wasn't long until Danny's tongue pressed against Martin's bottom lip begging for entrance. Martin allowed it, letting Danny dominate the kiss. They pulled back breathless. Danny smiled as Martin blushed.

"I didn't think that you…"

Danny kissed him again quieting his worry, "Trust me, I'd liked you for a long time."

Martin blushed even bright, if that was even possible. He cuddled into Danny tucking his head under his chin, humming in content, "You know the media is going to have a field day with this."

"Hey, don't worry about them. You need to focus on getting better."

"I am, I am but… family is going to come out of the wood works and, act as if they give a fuck. Including my father and if he knows we're dating he'll probably try to move me to a different division again."

"I won't let that happen," Danny reassured kissing the top of his head, "I'm not going to let anything happen to you ever again."

"You might have a few technical difficulties with that. My friends refer to me as a trouble magnet."

Danny laughed, "I'll do my best."

Fin


End file.
